Turn off devices and get some sleep, Huffington Post co-founder advises

The message was clear to students: Get some sleep.

Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the Huffington Post, asked about 100 students at UNLV to do the seemingly impossible — to shut off and lock up their electronic devices so that they could get uninterrupted sleep at night.

“We’re all addicted to our phones,” Huffington said in a campus appearance Wednesday. “But in order for us to change the culture, you’re going to have to turn off all your devices and hide them as far away from your bed as possible.

“Put your phone inside a box and put that box inside a case and put that case inside another one and that one inside yet another one and lock it and keep the key far away from you, maybe give it to a friend,” she said.

Huffington is on a promotional tour for her newest book, “The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life One Night at a Time.” She gave away copies of the book to everyone who came to hear her message.

Huffington said she initially planned to take her sleep crusade to 50 college campuses, but once she saw how receptive students were to the message, she doubled the itinerary. After speaking at UNLV Wednesday afternoon, she was flying to Los Angeles to deliver the message on the UCLA campus.

Huffington enlisted several sponsors to deliver the message, among them ride-hailing company Uber.

In Las Vegas, several students were selected to take 10-minute rides with her in an Uber vehicle so that they could have some one-on-one time with the author, columnist and activist who was the former wife of California Rep. Michael Huffington.

As part of her “Sleep Revolution College Tour,” Huffington acknowledged Uber’s anti-drowsy-driving campaign. Her HuffPost website offers a pledge to not drive drowsy and she and Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick wrote blog posts promoting it.

“We all know it’s dangerous to get behind the wheel when we’ve been drinking — but what about when we’re tired?” one post said. “Over 60 percent of Americans admit they’ve driven while drowsy at least once in the past year. Yet sleep deprivation impairs our judgment just as much as alcohol — and is just as likely to result in a fatal crash.”

Huffington said there are about 1.2 million car crashes involving drowsy driving each year resulting in 8,000 deaths and 500,000 injuries.

Uber also has an Uber for Business program that enables tired employees of participating companies to request an Uber ride late at night, paid for by the employer.

“This is particularly important in Las Vegas,” Huffington said in an interview. “This is a city that never sleeps.”

Huffington’s efforts also are co-sponsored by Toyota, JetBlue Airways and Marriott. On her flight from New York to Las Vegas, she handed out copies of “The Sleep Revolution” to every passenger onboard.

Another sponsor, mattress and bed manufacturer Sleep Number, displayed the company’s It bed model at the gathering.

UNLV students, gearing for final exams, got one more piece of advice from Huffington.

“Scientists say nighttime is a time of frenetic activity for the brain,” she said. “The worst thing you can do for finals is to pull an all-nighter.”

She’s counting on her book and campaign to sound an alarm on multiple sleep issues.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find him on Twitter: @RickVelotta